Post-Diwali Pre-Thanksgiving Celebration 2019

Happy Thursday! I hope you are looking forward to a relaxing weekend. We sure are! Last weekend we hosted a post-Diwali/ Pre-Thanksgiving party and we are so looking forward to a quiet weekend ahead. As you may recall we had to cancel our annual Diwali party three weeks ago because of a scheduled power outage on the day of the party! Folks, it was a good thing I cancelled because our power did go off on that Saturday promptly at 7pm! When Hitesh asked when I was planning on rescheduling our party I told him “Next year!” He was so disappointed and after much discussion convinced me to host our party again. But calling our party three weeks after Diwali a Diwali party just sounded silly, hence our Pre-Thanksgiving and post-Diwali celebration last weekend.

We had a fun evening of friends and family all decked in their finest with lots of laughter and smiles. This post has a ton of photos folks, so beware! Almost fifty guests attended our party and I wanted to make sure I got a shot of everyone. Here are the pics from our Post-Diwali Pre-Thanksgiving 2019 Celebration. Maybe I should have called it a Friendsgiving Celebration 🤔? Is Friendsgiving celebrated on a particular day or can it be celebrated anytime during the month of November?

Kalpana Sheth, i adore the Image of Dessert Time in this post and believe me This is the Best i have seen so far … Rich , Colorful and absolutely Delightful … I am going to post it as a Cover Photo on my Timeline on FB … Thank you …..

Dolly , Just Wondering ! Is the Lady in the Green Saree /Orange Blouse our Sudha , Bama Manni’s First daughter in the photo with Meera and Hitesh ? It has been years since I saw Sudha so i could not recognize her . Nice to see Sudha .

Hi Lakshmi thank you so much for making the vadas for the party they were outstanding! Thank you too for the beautiful vase and mums as well. I was happy to see that the whole family came and had a good time.

Dolly, I too just saw all the pictures .. they are awesome. The girls look so good and it was very nice to meet Pranav. He seems very smart and Sri looks so happy with him. I am really happy for her. It was a great evening. Nice to meet our friends and catch up. So much color and laughter. It was amazing to see all the kids have grown up so much. Food was awesome. Great menu selection and well made. The undhiyu was so tasty and not at all oily. I am sure to get some from Kumud. All of us enjoyed the food. Amma and Sudha loved the company – it was a fun evening for them. Hitesh’s pictures with Amma are very nice-you are good at capturing those moments. 😊

Hi Dolly,
Saw all the pictures. Agree, pics of Hitesh and Amma are really good! I’m glad they came – wasn’t sure if I should ask them but they wanted to come to your place; and a separate visit was challenging from a schedule standpoint. They thoroughly enjoyed the evening. Thank you very much for making them feel at home!

Hi Mahesh, it was great to see all of you at our party last Saturday, I am especially happy that Mami and Sudha agreed to come even though they didn’t know anybody – it meant the world to me! Thank you for bringing them and I am so glad to hear that they had a great time too! That’s awesome!!!

Great pictures! You have captured a shot of everyone even when you were so busy! Great party! Like the FriendsGiving Celebration name. You always give to friends! Enjoyed the food and the company! Thanks for putting this together.

Kalpana Sheth – You are indeed the Ultimate Event Planner … The Table Decor along with the Food Items and the Matching Colorful Chrysanthemum Flowers are enough to lift anyone’s Spirits . The Photos you post … Day after day shows your skill in catching the Prevailing Mood … in this Case Holiday Fun . To me . this is more like a Thanksgiving Party … Ur girls look beautiful and glamorous . For me , personally , Seeing Bama Manni looking so cheerful and lovely was the ICING ON THE CAKE . Thank you as always …

Mediterranean Diet is the Healthiest in the World

Year after year, when multiple diets are looked at for effectiveness, benefits for life and longevity, and long term sustainability, it’s the Mediterranean Diet that comes on top every time. And this year 2020, its the Mediterranean Diet again that wins top honors.

According to CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta, “A new study published Monday in the BMJ journal Gut found that eating the Mediterranean diet for just one year altered the microbiome of elderly people in ways that improved brain function and would aid in longevity.

The study found the diet can inhibit production of inflammatory chemicals that can lead to loss of cognitive function, and prevent the development of chronic diseases such as diabetes, cancer and atherosclerosis.”

Source: CNN Health

Eat a salad boost brain power

Older adults who reported regularly eating one to two servings a day of green leafy vegetables slowed their rate of age-related cognitive decline. So much so, in fact, that they tested as if they were 11 years younger!

A Golden State of Mind

California will do that to you – seep into your synapses like the scent of gardenias and not let go.

It was a simple plan. Take the kids to California. Show them Santa Barbara, drive up the coast to Big Sur and the Bay Area, and wrap up with friends in Napa Valley and Lake Tahoe. I didn’t know my kids would fall in love with the state by the time we crossed the Golden Gate Bridge, just as I did at age 10. Then we would return every summer thereafter. California is a state that still elicits wonder, no matter your age.”

Hunter Lewis. Food and Wine Editor April, 2020

Garden Color

Start Gardening To Eat Better

A new study in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics found that when older cancer survivors started an at-home vegetable garden, they boosted their daily produce intake, prevented some waistline weight gain, and reported feel greater “worth” compared to their counterparts who didn’t garden.

We’ve all heard exercise helps you live longer. But a new study goes one step further, finding that a sedentary lifestyle is worse for your health than smoking, diabetes and heart disease.

One of the big revelations from the research is that fitness leads to longer life, with no limit to the benefit of aerobic exercise. The study found that there is no level of exercise or fitness that exposes you to risk. Source: Journal of American Medical Association (JAMA)

diet quality, not quantity, is what helps people lose and manage their weight most easily in the long run.

The Times’s Anahad O’Connor reported this week, that new research published in the February 2018 issue of JAMA (The Journal of American Medical Association) supports the idea thatdiet quality, not quantity, is what helps people lose and manage their weight most easily in the long run.

In other words, the study found that if you cut back on added sugar, refined grains and highly processed foods and instead eat plenty of vegetables and whole foods, you can lose significant amounts ofweight — even without limiting portion sizes.

The research was led by Christopher D. Gardner, the director of nutrition studies at the Stanford Prevention Research Center and carried out on adults recruited from the Bay Area.

“This is the road map to reducing the obesity epidemic in the United States,” said Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian, a cardiologist and dean of the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University who was not involved in the new study. “It’s time for U.S. and other national policies to stop focusing on calories and calorie counting.”

What it means to be Californian

The New York Times asked Chef Samin Nosrat of Netflix show Salt Fat Acid Heat, what it means to be Californian. This was her answer.

Samin Nosrat: “And you asked about how being a Californian has influenced me: Above any other way of identifying, like above race or religion or anything — or nationality — I identify as a Californian. The way in which I’ve gotten to spend so much of my life outside in nature, in different landscapes, has absolutely affected me. I really love the beach. The beach has always been a constant in my life. Agriculture has affected me. The way there are so many different kinds of people here from all over the world — I’m so, so grateful for that. I remember being sick of the fact that it was always sunny in San Diego. My dad said to me: “What’s wrong with you? Everyone in the whole rest of the world aspires to live in California.”

About

I want to share with you my passion for everything beautiful. Nature, beautiful flowers, cooking delicious foods, celebrating festivals, meeting with friends and family, and anything that brings joy and happiness.

What you will find here are a variety of healthy vegetarian recipes chock full of good for you vegetables, legumes, eggs, milk, cheese, and yogurt.

I love photography and love to take photos of my garden, places I’ve traveled to and of gatherings with families and friends. Here you will find a little of everything, recipes, pictures, stories and everything happy.

Welcome to Surreyfarms. A happy state of mind. With Love, Kalpana

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Quotable Quotes

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbour. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” ~ Mark Twain

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Healthy Tip

“Green, leafy vegetables such as arugula, kale, collard greens, broccoli, spinach, and Swiss chard are among the foods that support brain health. Across several studies there is fairly consistent findings that green, leafy vegetables do seem to be related to decreased risk of cognitive impairments or dementia,” CBSnews.com

The joy of herb gardening

5 Lifestyle Habits that could help you live 10-years longer

Not smoking

Eating healthy

Excercising regularly

Maintaining a normal weight

Drinking only in moderation

“The new findings come from two studies by Harvard University that have followed over 123,000 U.S. health professionals since the 1980s. Over the years, the participants gave detailed information on their diets, exercise habits and other lifestyle factors.

On average, the researchers found, people who adhered to the five healthy habits were 74 percent less likely to die during the study period, versus those who maintained none of those habits.

Those who followed all five good lifestyle habits were also 82 percent less likely to die of heart disease or stroke, and 65 percent less likely to die of cancer, the findings showed.”

Low-carb diets might be best for maintaining weight loss

“We found that the type of diet people ate had a major impact on their metabolism. Those on the low-carbohydrate diet burned about 250 calories a day more than those on the high-carbohydrate diet, even though all the groups were the same weight,” said Dr. David Ludwig, principal investigator of the study and co-director of the New Balance Foundation Obesity Prevention Center at Boston Children’s Hospital.

Gardening could be the hobby that helps you live to 100

According to a recent BBC article Many of the world’s centenarians share one common hobby: gardening.

Dan Buettner the author of “Blue Zones” who has studied five places around the world where residents are famed for their longevity: Okinawa in Japan, Nicoya in Costa Rica, Icaria in Greece, and Loma Linda in California and Sardinia in Italy attributes gardening as one of the long-life hobbies.

“People living in these so-called “blue zones” have certain factors in common – social support networks, daily exercise habits and a plant-based diet, for starters. But they share another unexpected commonality. In each community, people are gardening well into old age – their 80s, 90s and beyond.”

He says there is evidence that gardeners live longer and are less stressed. A variety of studies confirm this, pointing to both the physical and mental health benefits of gardening.

A little about edible flowers

Using edible flowers in cakes and salads is an age old tradition that dates back centuries that became not so fashionable over the last few decades, however with the recent revival of organic gardening and holistic natural healing remedies, using edible flowers and herbs is coming back into popularity.

You may be surpried to learn that the list of edible flowers is huge with over hundred herbs and flowers that are edible. Just make sure to do your research before you head out into your garden and use flowers and herbs in your cooking.

As for me, I’ve always loved the idea of incorporating flowers and herbs as edible decorations in my foods. I tend to use edible flowers from my garden that I am familiar with that look pretty and are pesticide free. Most of my edibles are roses, nasturtiums, pansies, and marigolds. I also use the flowers that form on vegetables and herb plants.

Once you see the potential of using edible flowers and herbs in your desserts, salads, soups and stews, the possibitlies are endless.